Don't build elaborate welcome sequences before you have subscribers. The priority is validating your idea and growing your list. This avoids building features for a non-existent audience. A simple three-sentence welcome email is sufficient for early stages.
Related Insights
Don't wait until a campaign to focus on audience growth. Proactively schedule dedicated list-building activities (like a new quiz or free workshop) on your calendar during your 'off-seasons.' This builds a warm audience and strong relationships before you need to make an ask, leading to more successful launches.
A welcome email is more than a confirmation; it's a prime opportunity. Capitalize on the user's peak engagement by immediately including a call to action. For e-commerce, this should be a direct prompt to start shopping, as that is likely why they subscribed.
In the beginning, don't get lost in the weeds of perfect analytics and UTM parameters to track every subscriber source. It's a form of procrastination. For attribution, just add a simple question to your welcome email: "Where did you find the newsletter?" This is all the data you need early on.
It's okay to start a newsletter without a perfectly defined audience. Write about a range of your interests and pay close attention to which links get clicked and what topics resonate. Use this early feedback to meander your way toward a niche that both you and your audience enjoy.
When launching a LinkedIn newsletter, the platform notifies all your followers. The best tactic is to wait for this initial wave of subscribers to join *before* sending your first issue. Publishing too quickly means most of your new audience will miss the inaugural email, wasting the launch's momentum.
A critical mistake is publishing your first newsletter immediately upon creation. The optimal tactic is to launch the newsletter, wait for the platform to send subscription notifications and for followers to subscribe, and then send the first issue. This ensures it reaches the largest possible audience, avoiding the 'zero sends' pitfall of premature publishing.
When a new follower joins, send an automated welcome message that simply says thanks. Avoid pushing freebies or sales. The primary goal is to "break the ice" and accustom them to receiving messages from you, paving the way for future, more direct communication.
Newsletters can be powerful list-builders, but only if promoted like a product. Instead of a simple 'join my newsletter' prompt, create a dedicated page that details the value, explains what subscribers will get, and even offers a preview of a past issue.
Before building landing pages or choosing an email platform, validate your newsletter concept by directly asking people to subscribe. If you can't get 10-20 people from your network to say yes, the idea might need refinement. This avoids building infrastructure for an unproven concept.
Running paid ads for a new newsletter is a mistake. First, prove you can convert an existing organic audience (e.g., from social media). If your core followers won't subscribe, there's a content or messaging mismatch. Paid ads will only waste money by scaling a message that doesn't resonate.